Nebraskaland

Nebraskaland April 2019

NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.

Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1099174

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52 Nebraskaland • April 2019 Keith Jadlowski (left), Brett Smith and Jake Jadlowski show off a stringer of walleye at Lake McConaughy. ike most of us, I've fi shed for all kinds of fi sh in a whole bunch of diff erent places. But regardless of species and location, most of the fi shing I've done has been centered around my rod, my lure and me. Whether I'm fl ipping jigs for largemouth bass or bottom bouncing for walleye, most of my success or my failure is mine alone. Like golf, there is no guarantee that two guys using the same ball and driver will hit a tee shot that lands in the middle of the fairway. Likewise, there is no guarantee that two guys in the same boat, using the same lure and tactics, will catch the same amount of fi sh. I truly enjoy this individual element of fi shing. But I've also learned that there is a lot of fun to be had while fi shing as a part of a team, and trolling crankbaits for walleye is the ultimate team sport. It takes a team to manage the chaos of running multiple lines, attaching planer boards, changing out lures, fi xing giant tangles, switching motors, controlling the boat, fi ghting the fi sh, netting the fi sh, getting the boat back on course and redeploying all the lines. Success is shared, and it requires the contribution of everyone on board. When trolling crankbaits for walleyes, it doesn't matter if you reeled it in. It feels like every fi sh is your fi sh, and it's a blast. Unfortunately, failure is also shared. And my team did a lot of that before we got smart and upgraded our equipment and developed a system that was effi cient enough to occasionally fi ll up the livewell. Our fi rst attempts at trolling resulted from a slow bottom-bouncing bite as we tried to cover more water in order to locate fi sh. This was fun. We found that the bite could be fast and furious. However, as we increased the amount of time we spent trolling, we quickly learned that our system was not good. Hand rods resulted in varying rod tip locations that altered the depth of our lures. There was no way to know how much line we had out. And even if we did, we didn't know how much line to L Walleye Trolling 101 Story and Photos by Jake Jadlowski

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